Grace’s Reviews #3: Sunset Boulevard

The best way to describe this production of Sunset Boulevard is a stripped down spectacle. The spectacle is first and foremost (particularly in choreography, lighting, and of course the mega musical composer’s score) and anything superfluous to that has been taken away. Costumes are black and white, acting often simplified, the stage is empty. What we see is something spectacularly hollow. 

For months now I have been dying to see Sunset Boulevard not just for the Andrew Lloyd Webber of it all but because I’ve heard so much about Jaimie Lloyd. An interesting pairing: a director known for abstract minimalism and a bombastic composer. The story is ultimately about how hollow the love Norma seeks and gives is, so it seems like a fitting contradiction. The production being so stripped back also makes you really focus on the score, and the truly insane vocals being delivered by the performers. And there is a gorgeous BARITONE voice! Too often we forget about the B of SATB, or anything that isn’t a tenor a mezzo belter. I am not bitter what. 

But anyways, I wish nothing but the best for whoever created the Theatr ticket resale app. I saw this show because of it, and have seen many a last minute show, though often from the nosebleeds. This show is actually the perfect choice for nosebleeds because you really get the full picture, both the whole stage and the screen which shows the close ups. I am very pleased by visual symmetry and balance and strong color scheming and this show has that in spades. The lighting in this stunning. There is a point where the theater is black out and we see only flashes and it’s truly like nothing I’ve experienced in a theater. The atmosphere made is dystopian and grim. Often times characters just stare blankly and stand in place, or in a line with other equal blank expressions. Any time there was movement on stage it was hypnotically precise and robotic. It works for me because this story is deeply disturbing and fucked up when it is stripped of the fun glamor and bedazzled turbans. The greatest brilliance of this production is the use of cameras. If there’s ever an excuse to use cameras it's doing a show about a waning starlet in 1930’s Hollywood. They use the camera to indicate car travel, chase, conflict, etc and it reads so well to film. Not to mention the Orwellian stares we get from various characters, silently commenting on the scenes they watch.

This is a compliment for the book itself, but I love that Norma kills the narrator and tells the end of the story on a black stage. She’s now the narrator. Norma is a blackhole of a person; she’s so fully consumed him that she’s consumed his role in the show. And the result of all these factors is why I think this production has stuck with me for the three days its taken to write this review: it’s haunting.

The small issues I had with the show:

The acting is very stylized and specific and simple. I mentioned this earlier as part of the stripping back to ultra focus on spectacle but at the same time it made the characters feel…soulless. I’m sure it is exactly what Jaimie Lloyd told the actors to go for because it fits the vision, but I felt the result was our leading man making the chad face for most of the production. It made me less invested in the story because I just couldn’t see motives or empathize with them really. Thus the Betty subplot was just kind of silly to me. And that made the middle part drag a little as we set up the stellar finale. 

Last issue is Nicole Scherzinger is too hot for any reasonable man to be rejecting her. Yes she’s crazy but we honor the crazy to hot ratio in this household.

I will say I was shocked at how good Nicole Scherzinger was, I hate to say that usually I don’t expect much from celebrity castings but she definitely delivered.

Overall, a very excellent production that was extremely daring and 100% committed to the risk and I have the utmost respect for that.